After Mark Cuban’s podcast and audio app, Fireside, is set to launch very soon, competitors of Clubhouse like Discord , Instagram live rooms, Reddit talk etc have tried to capture the market through innovation and different ideas. But, Clubhouse, at the moment, is running away with it as it already has added 8 million new users since it launched on Android in May 2021. Since its actual launch in April 2020, amidst the pandemic, it has gained immense popularity among young people and the once invite only iOS app is now competing with the likes of social media giants like Twitter and Facebook. Now Clubhouse comes up with a direct chat feature called Backchannel and it will allow users to ask questions to host or message to friends during live sessions.
Clubhouse has started Beta testing on limited testers and the audio sharing company has also announced major improvements and changes to keep their loyal customer base. After listening to their customers’ number one request, of adding direct messages, they have now decided to add a Direct messaging feature which allows one on one and group texts and it is called backchannel. The social audio company took to Twitter to announce this major addition to their app. There has been no official communication as to when the app will launch on the Play Store for Android users to use.
This is not the first time there has been news about the messaging service on Clubhouse as the audio sharing company leaked this feature accidentally last month. The backchannel texting feature also lets moderators chat amongst themselves before launching the room to everyone. The audience can submit questions and chat amongst themselves when they’re together in a room as well. However, the only negative of this feature right now is that this feature doesn’t let you share images and videos. But, according to reports, sources close to Clubhouse say that the ability to share images and videos will soon be added to backchannel.
Clubhouse has grown immensely in a short span of time since its release 15 months ago and has also pushed social media giants like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to tweak their plans and make strategic changes to their app to keep up with the competition. Paul Davison, CEO of Clubhouse, later confirmed that the social audio sharing platform now has more than 10+ million active weekly users and it saw a huge increase in downloads since its release on Android in May 2021.
